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BitJazz SheerVideo FAQ Fidelity: Other Perfect-Fidelity Codecs
Is SheerVideo as accurate as D1?
Is SheerVideo as accurate as Microcosm?
Is SheerVideo as accurate as PNG?
Is SheerVideo as accurate as PhotoJazz?
Is SheerVideo as accurate as StuffIt?
Is SheerVideo as accurate as Zip?
Is SheerVideo as accurate as the Animation codec?
Is SheerVideo as accurate as uncompressed, Apple's None codec, or Apple's Component Video codec?
Is SheerVideo as accurate as uncompressed, Apple's None codec, or Apple's Component Video codec?
Yes. SheerVideo is just as accurate as uncompressed video.
In other words, it's perfect.
But be aware that the None codec, which uses straight binary coding,
gives you the option of degrading the image by reducing its precision before encoding it.
SheerVideo ensures that the image is never degraded, by always encoding the full 8 bits per channel.
SheerVideo is intended as a replacement for uncompressed video, because it's just as accurate, but twice as fast and twice as small.
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Is SheerVideo as accurate as D1?
Yes. SheerVideo Y'CbCr 8bv 4:2:2 is exactly as accurate as D1.
SheerVideo is exactly equal to D1, except that SheerVideo only takes half as much space on tape and half as much time to read or write.
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Is SheerVideo as accurate as Zip?
Yes. SheerVideo is just as accurate as Zip, which is to say, it's exact.
But SheerVideo only works for video, and SheerVideo is 120 times as fast as Zip,
and SheerVideo (2.20) is 35% more powerful than Zip (1.80) for real-world imagery.
In addition, SheerVideo is a QuickTime codec that can be conveniently used inside any QuickTime-savvy video application.
On the other hand, Zip is a general-purpose utility that can compress any type of file, not just video.
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Is SheerVideo as accurate as StuffIt?
Yes. SheerVideo is just as accurate as StuffIt. In other words, it's exact.
But SheerVideo only works for video.
However, SheerVideo is 160 times faster than StuffIt 6,
and for real-world content, SheerVideo (2.20) is 5% more powerful than StuffIt (2.09).
Moreover, whereas StuffIt is a general-purpose utility designed to conveniently compress files and folders,
SheerVideo is a QuickTime codec designed for use from within any QuickTime-enabled video application.
On the other hand, as a general-purpose utility, StuffIt can compress all kinds of data, not just video.
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Is SheerVideo as accurate as the Animation codec?
Yes. SheerVideo is just as accurate as Apple's Animation codec is at maximum quality:
That is, it's absolutely accurate.
However, the Animation codec, which just does run-length coding,
optionally lets you reduce the precision of the image before encoding it,
thus degrading the image.
SheerVideo always encodes a full 8 bits per channel, so it never degrades the image.
But for real-world footage, SheerVideo (2.20) is over 100% more powerful than Animation (1.06).
And SheerVideo encodes 2.5 times as fast as Animation.
And although it decodes 40% slower than Animation RAM-to-RAM,
in practice SheerVideo decodes twice as fast as Animation because Animation compresses so little
that it runs into the same bottlenecks as uncompressed video.
SheerVideo also supports native video formats, which Animation doesn't.
On the other hand, Animation supports low-quality image formats such as indexed-color,
and is usually more effective at compressing poster-quality images with large areas of constant color,
as in traditional 2-dimensional animation.
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Is SheerVideo as accurate as PNG?
Yes. SheerVideo is every bit as accurate as Apple's PNG codec: Both codecs are perfectly accurate.
Note, however, that the PNG codec, which works by string-match coding,
optionally lets you reduce the precision of the image before encoding it,
which degrades the image.
SheerVideo always encodes at full precision (8 bits per channel), so it never degrades the image.
However, SheerVideo encodes 60 times faster than PNG, and decodes nearly 6 times as fast.
Moreover, SheerVideo is 20% more powerful than PNG for real-world imagery.
And SheerVideo also supports native video formats, which PNG doesn't.
On the other hand, PNG supports low-quality image formats such as indexed-color
and tends to be much more powerful for poster-quality images such as title screens and animations.
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Is SheerVideo as accurate as Microcosm?
Yes. SheerVideo has exactly the same accuracy as Microcosm: It's perfectly accurate.
But SheerVideo encodes 70 times faster than Microcosm,
and SheerVideo decodes 15 times faster than Microcosm.
In addition, SheerVideo supports not just RGB[A], but native video formats as well, which Microcosm doesn't.
For poster-quality images, though, Microcosm is usually more powerful.
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Is SheerVideo as accurate as PhotoJazz?
Yes. SheerVideo has exactly the same accuracy as PhotoJazz: perfect accuracy.
What's more, SheerVideo is 50 times faster than PhotoJazz.
And unlike PhotoJazz, SheerVideo also supports native video formats.
On the other hand, PhotoJazz also supports multiple alpha channels, 16-bit channels, multispectral images,
and print-oriented color spaces such as CMYK, L*a*b*, multitone, and monochrome.
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